I eat “pretty” healthy. I’m 95% vegan (with the exception of free-range organic eggs). Being vegan means that a lot of un-healthy foods are automatically ruled out of my diet so that’s a good start. Unfortunately there are a lot of foods that are vegan and yes… unhealthy. For example, did you know that Oreos are vegan? Did you know that most of the classic comfort foods can be reverted to vegan, such as cream cheese, creamy pasta and even pizza (although I will admit that it’s definitely not the same thing).

The first step to eating healthy is asking yourself why you want to eat healthy. The different reasons for eating healthy can make you approach it differently. It can be to lose weight, for health reasons (such as high cholesterol), or just to feel stronger, better and have more energy. My main reason for eating healthier is the latter. To have more energy and give my body the privilege of running on healthy wholesome foods that are not secretly trying to kill it. Although, I won’t complain if I shed a few pounds on the way.

That leads me to another problem. I’m not motivated enough. My whole life I have been a healthy weight. Never skinny, but never fat. Always perfectly average. That’s the thing, I’m not complaining! I’m perfectly happy and content with my average, evenly dispersed weight. So losing weight is not a huge motivator. Eating healthy to feel better can be a confusing motivator because eating Oreos also feels so damn good.

The key to succeeding is finding your own personal motivation. What motivates you is not what’s going to motivate your neighbor. Lack of motivation is one of the hardest things to overcome, so once you figure out what sparks your fire then you will already be WAY more equipped to actually achieving any goals you have. Think back to the time you were most motivated and notice what element motivated you the most.

The month where I got in the most runs was when I was using the Nike+ coaching app. In the coach mode the app showed me a checklist of runs that I had to complete that week, eventually working my up to running a 10K in under an hour. Once I completed the run of the day a little green checkmark would appear next to the run showing it was complete. When I finished a whole week like this then the week would appear green and have a BIG checkmark. It is incredibly satisfying to see the runs you have accomplished lined up with little green checkmarks of approval. It made me never want to miss a run. There was no such thing as “doing it tomorrow”, because if I did it tomorrow I wouldn’t get a check mark.

So, how can I apply this sort of motivation to other aspects of my life? I can start by planning week-by-week. I want to eat healthy this week. What does that mean? It doesn’t mean leaving out the half a teaspoon of sugar out of my tea, it means cutting up watermelon for dessert instead of a baking a delicious vegan pie. When I have a craving I can trick my sweet tooth by eating peanut-butter apples instead of chocolate. When I am feeling lazy I can eat cooked chickpeas instead of cream cheese on toast. At the end of that week, if I succeeded in my goals, I can make an “unhealthy” dessert for me and family to enjoy for Shabbat dinner. Sounds like a plan. Now we wait and see if it happens.

I am a future-oriented thinker. So sometimes I have to scale back and take things week by week or even day by day so I don’t get lost in the planning and day-dreaming part of my goals. Instead of “I want to run a marathon” I need to focus on “this week I want to run at least 20 kilometers”. Instead of “I want to write a blog” I need to focus on “every week I will write one blog post” and instead of “I want to eat healthy” I will take it week by week and pay attention to the food choices I make and exercise self-control when I see I need it.

To summarize, motivation is a bitch. Not having motivation is what makes us sleep in an extra half hour instead of exercising, not having motivation is what makes us grab for the easy un-healthy foods instead of cooking healthy ones. The biggest problem of all is that lack of motivation is sometimes the only thing stopping us from achieving our goals.

So think of what motivates YOU. Make motivation your friend and not your enemy. Think of all the cool things you could be doing if you and motivation are friends. I bet you they are REALLY cool things. They might even be things that make the world a better place.

So what are you waiting for…?